Opinion alert : 388 or msr16

[Zachary sterman]

I own a 388 and absolutely love it. If I didn’t have it, I wouldn’t have done half the things I’ve done in my life. The drums sound soooo good. Crunchy mid fi 70’s ooze. It’s sound almost crafted my style of music.
BUT

my friend is selling his MSR16
With a m312 console (all fully working and at the shop now being tested and serviced to 100%)

Idk much of the difference, but if im gaining 8 channels with a similar sound, I might go for it. I’d have to trade my 388 to pay for it. Any thoughts? Could I use the low speed (7.5) on msr16 and get a similar sound quality that my 388 has? As well as being able to track at the higher speed for the higher quality. Obviously I don’t know much about this other than the fact of I love recording to tape and have a lot of experience with my Personal 388 machine. It was my first multitrack machine so I have no experience outside of it. Help????????

 

[SkywaveTDR]

It is best to get away from the 388 due to the amount of people that work on them and the parts availability. The heads are not to be found anywhere. The TSR and MSR were a way to make unit cheaper but they only have two heads.

 

[Zachary sterman]

Do you have experience with the msr machine? Any comparisons to the 388?

 

[SkywaveTDR]

I have worked on MSR16 decks but the track width is very small and for a person to expect 1" or 2" performance from them, well you can not get that. The smaller the track width the more pristine the tape path needs to be maintained and people actually do or act opposite to that. Then they complain to the Technician that it is the machines fault. Formats like this is pushing the envelope and the more you do that the harder they are to repair and keep going plus there is no support for parts on these. You are better off with a Tascam 38 or 48 or even a 58 deck which are closer to the real thing- not cassette deck track widths.

 

[wkrbee]

There are two approaches to recording gear. One is the objective/audiophile one-going for the lowest distortion/cross talk,and the best bandwidth-the EE/tech/Hi Fi approach. The second is the murky subjective world of the musician-slam those meters/overload the tape for compression,ignore cross-talk and bandwidth,(remember the 388 only went out to about 15 KHZ),-to get the "sound" the musician wants.